Collaborative Research: Evolution of Subsurface Microbe-Rock-Fluid Systems

本项目研究地质时期地球表面的变化如何影响深层生物圈，有利于或限制地下微生物生命潜力的地质和气候因素，微生物生命的历史及其与流体和流体-岩石反应的关系。关于水和其他流体如何在地球表面深处流动，以及这如何支持和影响地壳深处的生命，我们的知识非常有限。然而，了解这些地下流体、岩石和微生物在地质时期相互作用和进化的方式，对于水、矿物和能源资源的可持续利用以及处置它们不需要的副产品至关重要。结果将确定地质过去的特定时期和地壳内地下条件促进微生物活动的位置，并提供对地球深层生物圈微生物可居住性的长期历史的见解。该项目将培训几名研究生，帮助招收和留住第一代、低收入家庭、社区大学和代表性不足的少数民族本科生，通过开发地球科学课程吸引K-12学生，并通过教育视频更广泛地与公众分享研究成果。该项目将开发一个跨学科的框架和方法，以跟踪地壳上层几公里的地下微生物-岩石-流体系统的演化。该研究将探索流体循环、流体-岩石反应和地下微生物可居住性之间的相互联系，并对这些条件在地质时期的演变进行预测。该项目将确定驱动因素和渗透率变化，促进成分不同的流体和岩石的收敛，从而改变地下氧化还原梯度、热力学条件和微生物活动的代谢势。美国西南部的Paradox和里约热内卢大裂谷盆地将成为开发和测试模型的现场，这些模型可以应用于其他地下微生物-岩石-流体系统。研究成果将产生关于有效管理地下水、矿物和能源资源以及储存替代能源和废物产品所需的活跃水文循环下限和深层微生物生态系统的关键信息。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project investigates how changes to the Earth’s surface over geologic time have affected the deep biosphere, the geologic and climatic factors that favor or limit the potential for subsurface microbial life, and the history of microbial life and its relationship to fluids and fluid-rock reactions. Knowledge of how water and other fluids flow at great depths beneath the Earth’s surface, and how this supports and affects life deep within the Earth’s crust, is very limited. Yet, understanding the ways that these subsurface fluids, rocks, and microbes interact and evolve over geologic time is essential for sustainable use of water, mineral, and energy resources and disposal of their unwanted by-products. Results will identify specific time periods in the geologic past and locations within the Earth’s crust where subsurface conditions promoted microbial activity and provide insights into the long-term history of microbial habitability in the planet’s deep biosphere. This project will train several graduate students, help to recruit and retain first-generation, low-income, community college, and under-represented minority undergraduate students, engage K-12 students through development of Earth Science curriculum, and share research results more broadly with the general public through educational videos. This project will develop an interdisciplinary framework and approaches necessary to track the evolution of subsurface microbe-rock-fluid systems in the upper few kilometers of the Earth’s crust. The research will explore the interconnections between fluid circulation, fluid-rock reactions, and subsurface microbial habitability, and make predictions regarding the evolution of these conditions over geologic time. The project will identify the drivers and permeability changes promoting convergence of compositionally disparate fluids and rocks that alter subsurface redox gradients, thermodynamic conditions, and metabolic potentials for microbial activity.The Paradox and Rio Grande Rift basins in the southwestern US will be the field sites used to develop and test models that can be applied to other subsurface microbe-rock-fluid systems. Research outcomes will generate critical information on the lower boundaries of the active hydrologic cycle and deep microbial ecosystems required for effective management of subsurface water, mineral, and energy resources and storage of alternative energy and waste-products.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.